Second Half Substitutes Play Big For US Against Azerbaijan

We witnessed what Landon Donovan did in response to not being named a part of the 23 man roster for the US National Team, but now it was time to see what the US had. It's hard to believe that this was the first time the United States had ever played at Candlestick Park in San Francisco and sadly it's the last time as well as the team took on Azerbaijan. There was a little drama before the game started for Jurgen Klinsmann who had Clint Dempsey in the starting lineup, but due to a groin injury, Chris Wondolowski received the starting nod and he made it look like it was the right decision as he had an unbelievable chance off a free kick as Graham Zusi delivered a perfect ball into the box, but the Goalkeeper was there to deny him. The team would have a couple of more chances on net, but to no avail, Azerbaijan held on to the 0-0 draw going into halftime.

After six substitutions and 75 minutes into the game, the United States who were looking flat for a while finally got themselves on the scoreboard. The very last substitute for the US Mikkel Diskerud would make Azerbaijan pay. Off of the free kick, the ball would find Michael Bradley who fired toward the net, but the ball would deflect off of a defender and Diskerud was in the right place at the right time to knock in the rebound for the first goal of the game. The game would open up for the United States as the bench were earning their stripes on the field. In the 80TH minute, Brad Davis would deliver a corner into the box and it would find the head of second half substitute Aron Jóhannsson for the second goal of the game. In the end, the two goals were all the United States needed to win, but I still have some questions left for the team. Was Azerbaijan the proper test of the US as they mainly played with 11 men back and that is something you will not see from Portugal, Germany, and Ghana. The United States next game will be against Nigeria in June so we'll see how the team does against them.